Strength
by OwlIs
Summary: Second in the Underestimated Series. She wasn't an ex-soldier like Diggle. She hardly knew self-defense skills, which was something both Shadow and Sara knew. She wasn't a significant part of his pre-island life like Laurel. She wasn't on the police force like Detective Lance. Felicity was just the IT girl. And that puzzled Slade.


**I think Slade really underestimated Felicity in various ways. He never really threatened or thought about her until Oliver professed his love. That was exactly why Oliver had to let her go in.**

* * *

Slade Wilson had spent five years meticulously and methodically planning the demise of Oliver Queen. Driven by rage and hatred, Slade formed the perfect plan, the plan that would drag Oliver into the depths of Hell with him in the slowest, most painful way.

While he formulated his plan, he always, _always _knew the endgame. It would end in the same way it began, the same way Slade's life ended.

Once he had Laurel, the plan was complete. The past five years had all led up to this.

But he only had an hour of peace before one of his men entered his office. "Oliver returned to this mansion."

Slade narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"He's with that blonde. Felicity Smoak."

Slade ran into the surveillance room furiously. Everything had been according to plan. _Everything_. Oliver should have been planning his own attack against him. So what was Oliver Queen doing at his house with that IT girl while his world was falling apart?"

He stared at the tape, watching as the blonde asked the same question he was wondering.

Oliver put an arm on Felicity's shoulder. "You need to stay here."

"_What? _Why? You can't just ask me-"

"I'm not asking." He said sternly.

A moment of silence passed over the two, while Slade tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Was he finally dropping her? Cutting his lose ends?

"I will come and get you when this is all over." Oliver promised, pacing towards the door.

"_No_!"

"Felicity-"

"No. Not unless you tell me why."

The sound of her voice brought him back to her. "Because I need you to be safe."

That was certainly not the answer Slade had been expecting. Slade's analysis of Felicity Smoak frequently boarded on uncertainty from the start. She was in love with him- that much was clear- but what puzzled Slade was what use she was to him. Five years of kill or be killed had transformed Oliver into a perpetual state of survival mode and from Slade's point of view, she served no significant purpose.

Felicity wasn't an ex-soldier like John Diggle, so she was no use to him out in the field. She hardly knew self-defense skills, which was something both Shadow and Sara knew. She wasn't a significant part of his pre-island life like Laurel either or an attorney who could get him information. She wasn't on the police force like Detective Lance. Felicity was just an IT girl.

"Well I don't want to be safe. I want to be with you...and the others. Unsafe."

Oliver sighed. "I can't let that happen."

Felicity stretched out a hand and laid it on his forearm, voice turning soft. "Oliver. You're not making any sense."

"Slade took Laurel because he wants to kill the woman I love."

"I know. So?"

"So he took the wrong woman."

Slade's jaw nearly dropped, dark eyes wide in amazement.

In those five years, he had never stopped to think about how Oliver might have changed after living in Starling City again. Never wavered from the fact that Oliver loved Laurel. Never guessed that his heart, after a year and a half in Starling, might belong to one timid, quiet, blonde IT girl.

"Oh..."

The emotion on Oliver's face was one Slade had never seen, not even when staring at Laurel's picture on the island. It was the way Slade looked at Shadow when she was alive.

"I love you." He said, taking her hands into his. "Do you understand?"

Felicity managed a weak "Yes," before Oliver left. She let out a shakey breath as soon as he was gone.

Slade could only stare at the screen for a few moments, unable to process the fact that he had been _wrong_. He had missed a huge part of Oliver's life. He had never been able to figure out what Felicity meant to Oliver until now.

Slade had to change his plan.

Capturing the girl was a wee bit harder than Slade initially assumed. He had not expected her to come at his men with a taser, a vase, and a few well-placed kicks. Her knowledge of basic defense skills reminded him that he hardly knew the girl who assisted the Arrow, yet another whose love was unrequited. Because Oliver never felt the same way, there was no need to think of her.

"He's going to stop you." Felicity said, voice wavering but confident.

Slade gave a low chuckle, impressed that she had the courage to speak with his sword at her throat. "Is that so?"

"You'll never get away."

"You think I haven't heard that cliché line before?"

"There's nothing else to say. It's the truth."

Slade shook his head. "Such blind faith. You don't know anything about this man. Oliver Queen. I bet that he never told you what happened on that island. Bet he didn't even tell you about me or what this is all about until it was too late, until I was impossible to ignore." Slade said gruffly.

The blonde swallowed nervously, her eyes glancing over at Laurel and her guard.

"I'm right. Aren't I?"

"I won't disagree."

Slade looked down at the IT girl he never would have guessed to hold Oliver's heart.

She didn't fight or struggle like Laurel. Felicity never made a move out of line. She wasn't unshakable or fearless like Shadow. Slade could tell that she was trying her hardest not to shake like a kicked puppy. She wasn't fast or big or combative.

But she was loyal.

"You put your trust in the wrong person kid." Slade said quietly, so only Felicity could hear. "A good friend of mine made that mistake, and it got her killed. It's why I'm going to kill you."

"You mean Shadow?"

The mention of her name still had the ability to shake Slade to his core. Even now she haunted him. Tortured him. Knowing that Oliver had betrayed her trust, knowing that he had sacrificed her life to save the life of some girl's sister that he slept with always drove Slade mad.

"Yes."

"I know what happened on the island was terrible, that it changed you both into men you never wanted to be." Felicity said. "I know you blame him but...but he never-"

"He made a _choice_."

"He was _forced_ to make a choice. He wanted her to live." Felicity said.

Within those five years, there were very few moments when he stopped to reminisce on the times when he, Oliver, and Shadow were a team, an unbreakable trio of friendship brought together under the threat of death.

But this was one of those moments. Slade knew that Oliver never wanted Shadow to die, knew it even in his madness. What hurt him the most was that he betrayed Shadow, the woman Slade loved.

"I know how you feel about him. Never thought he felt the same until today, the way he treated you. He sure doesn't act like it. Sleeping with Isabel, sleeping with Sara, pining for Laurel. He has a nasty talent for hurting those he cares for the most." Slade's voice was filled with disgust. "He doesn't deserve you kid."

Felicity's breath hitched. "Everyone deserves someone."

"That's not the way he feels. If he had, he would have picked Shadow."

"If he had been given a different choice, it would have been him that got shot."

"But it wasn't." Slade said roughly, as he got the cue that Oliver had arrived. "Twitch, and I'll open your throat."

Oliver arrived with his bow drawn, mask on. Both were redundancies, and they knew it. "Drop the bow kid."

He hesitated and Slade pressed his sword harder against Felicity's neck, prompting a nervous squeak from her. "Do it."

Ever so slowly, Oliver dropped the bow with Laurel and her captor coming out beside Slade. Felicity gave him a desperate look. She couldn't inject Slade with the serum unless he dropped the sword.

"Yes. Countless nights dreaming of taking from you all that you took from me."

"By killing the woman I love." Oliver saw Laurel's eyes stare at him in confusion. To her, Felicity was just the IT girl, someone helping him adjust to the world's technologies.

"Yes."

"Like you loved Shadow?"

"Yes." Slade's answer was quieter, gentler this time, and Oliver knew that she was the answer to giving Felicity the chance to use the serum.

"You see her, don't you? Well what does she look like in your madness Slade?" Oliver pressed, getting Slade to shove Felicity to the ground. "What does she say to you? I remember her being beautiful. Young. Kind." Even with the prompting, Slade still kept the blade on Felicity- gliding it across her shoulders. "And she would be horrified by what you have done in her name."

Slade began to walk towards Oliver, away from the serum. "What I have done? _What I have done _is what you lacked the courage to do. To _fight_ for her!" Slade walked back to Felicity and Oliver knew that the time was coming. "So, when her body lies at your feet, her blood wet against your skin, then you will know how I feel!"

"I already know how you feel. I know what it's like to hate. To want revenge." Slade's sword never wavered, but both Felicity and Oliver knew that it was nearly time, sword or no sword. "And now I know how it feels," Oliver paused as Felicity gasped softly, "To see my enemy so distracted, he doesn't see the real danger is right in front of him."

Even after that, Slade didn't understand. He stared around the room, seeking the danger and bringing Felicity to her feet to shield him from any oncoming attack. His mistake comes when he fails to notice Felicity reach into her pocket, take a quick breath, and jam the needle deep into his throat.

It takes him a full thirty seconds to realize where he went wrong.

Even after talking with her, Slade never thought that the timid girl would try anything. She had acted like the perfect captive. And if Oliver truly loved her, he wouldn't knowingly place her in danger. Oliver's belief in her capabilities was more than Slade could fathom.

Slade never thought that Felicity-tiny, kind, babbling Felicity-would ever have the strength to be the enemy.


End file.
